The first game of SA20 2025 was played between Sunrisers Eastern Cape and MI Cape Town on Friday in Gqeberha. In the opening match, Cape Town emerged victorious by 97 runs as they posted 174/7 while batting first and then bundled out the Sunrisers for 77. During the match, MI batter Dewald Brevis, who scored 57 off 29 balls, hammered a huge six which brought back the memories of a gigantic six from India batter Rinku Singh in 2023. The Indian had hit a big maximum off Aiden Markram during a T20I match against South Africa in December 2023, which ended up damaging sightscreen of the press box.
Interestingly, after 394 days on the incident, the sightscreen which was broken by Rinku's six, is still not repaired due to the budget constraints. The press box at the St George's Park in Gqeberha is placed at a high altitude and it is also one of the reasons for the delay in the repair work.
After the opening match of SA20 2025, Terrance, who is one of the officials of the St George's Park and looks after the maintenance work, spoke to Hindustan Times and shared some details.
"Firstly, look at the height. It's too much and not that easily possible to get fixed because it would require a crane and all sorts of heavy machinery. You can't bring all that stuff into the field when you have games like these. We've had windows broken here at the bottom from time to time. That we fix in a jiffy. So there is always a priority set. And with the budget shortage, we have to work with what we've got," said Terrance.
"We had the roof fixed. If you see that roof, we've got it covered. That is a new roof. I can show you projects that have been successfully completed," he added.
Terrance further stated that during a storm in August 2024, the condition of the stadium deteriorated and a lot of money was spent on the repair work.
"We suffered storms in August, so the entire roof of a stand blew away. And then we made a claim to the insurer, who said it's wear-and-tear. We can't really pay for that. And we had to pay around 400,000R. It was quite a big portion," he said.
"Other parts had corrosion, and so on; those needed repairing and some replacements. It cost a lot of money. So, in that context, I am saying it's not really a priority. Because it doesn't pose a danger to anybody. Then again, it doesn't mean that it's not on our list to get it fixed," he added.
source https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/rinku-singh-effect-still-in-gqeberha-as-the-glass-broken-by-his-six-remains-unrepaired-7440852
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